First Edition: April 18, 2024

KFF Health News: Medicare’s Push To Improve Chronic Care Attracts Businesses, But Not Many Doctors
Carrie Lester looks forward to the phone call every Thursday from her doctors’ medical assistant, who asks how she’s doing and if she needs prescription refills. The assistant counsels her on dealing with anxiety and her other health issues. Lester credits the chats for keeping her out of the hospital and reducing the need for clinic visits to manage chronic conditions including depression, fibromyalgia, and hypertension. (Galewitz and Hacker, 4/18)

KFF Health News: The Path To A Better Tuberculosis Vaccine Runs Through Montana
A team of Montana researchers is playing a key role in the development of a more effective vaccine against tuberculosis, an infectious disease that has killed more people than any other. The BCG (Bacille Calmette-Guérin) vaccine, created in 1921, remains the sole TB vaccine. While it is 40% to 80% effective in young children, its efficacy is very low in adolescents and adults, leading to a worldwide push to create a more powerful vaccine. (Robbins, 4/18)

Reuters: US 911 Emergency Call Line Outage Resolved In Some Areas
Emergency services on the 911 telephone call line were restored late on Wednesday in parts of the United States, officials said, following a widespread outage across all of South Dakota and in parts of Nebraska, Nevada and Texas. Officials in South Dakota, Nevada and Las Vegas said 911 services had been restored, but without identifying the cause of the failure. (V, 4/18)

KENS 5 CBS News: Texas One Of Many States Experiencing 911 Outages
The Del Rio Police Department said an unspecified "major cellular carrier" was to blame. Authorities in the South Texas border city emphasized in a Facebook post that the "issue is with the carrier and not the City of Del Rio systems," urging the public to call 911 with a landline or through a functioning carrier if they have an emergency.  (Lynch, 4/17)

The Wall Street Journal: Arizona Republicans Block Another Push To Repeal Abortion Ban 
Republicans in the Arizona state House blocked two attempts Wednesday to repeal the state’s 160-year-old near total ban on abortion, despite pressure on the GOP—including from former President Donald Trump—to change course on the hot-button issue. But later in the day, two Senate Republicans joined with Democrats—enough to create a majority—to move forward on their version of a repeal. A final vote on the bill could be weeks away. If the Senate does ultimately vote to repeal the ban, the measure would go back to the House, where it would still face a difficult path. (Collins, 4/17)

Newsweek: Donald Trump Scores Win On Abortion
More Americans believe abortion restrictions should be decided by the states rather than the federal government, according to polling conducted exclusively for Newsweek. The results suggest more Americans are coming to share former President Donald Trump's view on the issue. Trump, the presumptive Republican nominee, announced last week that he believes abortion limits should be left to the states, declining to endorse a national ban after months of speculation and warning that extreme stances on the issue could lead to Republican losses in November's election. (Rahman, 4/18)

The Hill: Nebraska Sen. Ricketts Donates $500K To Anti-Abortion Ballot Campaign
The conservative effort to put an abortion ban on the ballot in Nebraska has been bankrolled entirely to date by Sen. Pete Ricketts (R-Neb.). Ricketts donated $500,000 in cash on March 26 to the group Protect Women and Children, according to its campaign finance report filed with the Nebraska Accountability and Disclosure Commission. The group reported no other donations. (Weixel, 4/17)

The Washington Post: How Biden’s Abortion Stance Has Shifted Over The Years 
Since the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade nearly two years ago, abortion has become a top campaign issue. Since then, President Biden has vociferously defended the right to choose an abortion and attacked former president Donald Trump, the presumptive GOP nominee, for eroding reproductive rights. It might come as a surprise that Biden once opposed abortion and believed that Roe was wrongly decided. Here is how Biden’s stance on abortion has evolved over the decades. (Wang and Guild, 4/17)

Modern Healthcare: Hospital Prices For Emergency Care Varied 16-Fold In 2023: JAMA
Prices for initiating care at hospital trauma centers vary wildly across hospitals, sometimes leading to patients with insurance paying more than those without coverage, according to a new study. Prices associated with readying doctors and other personnel for trauma cases varied 16-fold in 2023 across 761 hospitals studied, according to a peer-reviewed research letter published Wednesday in the Journal of the American Medical Association. (Kacik, 4/17)

Modern Healthcare: Nursing Home Staff Mandate Draws Concerns At Senate Hearing
Nursing home workers and educators pushed back on the administration's staffing mandate at a Senate Aging Committee hearing Tuesday, as the industry waits for the final rule to drop. In September, CMS proposed staffing ratio requirements for long-term care facilities, which would require them to provide 0.55 hours of care from a registered nurse per resident per day and 2.45 hours of care from a nurse aide per resident per day. (DeSilva, 4/17)

Becker's Hospital Review: PeaceHealth Nurses Authorize 2nd Strike
Members of the Oregon Nurses Association at Springfield, Ore.-based PeaceHealth Sacred Heart Home Care Services have voted to authorize an open-ended strike. The union represents more than 90 nurses at PeaceHealth Sacred Heart Home Care Services, according to an ONA news release shared with Becker's. PeaceHealth Sacred Heart Home Care Services is part of PeaceHealth, a Vancouver, Wash.-based nonprofit Catholic health system serving communities in Washington, Oregon and Alaska. (Gooch, 4/17)

The South Alabamian: Alabama Hospital Up For Auction 4 Years After Opening
The Thomasville Regional Medical Center faces foreclosure and could be sold at auction on May 9, unless a deal to transfer it to new owners goes through, according to court filings and Thomasville Mayor Sheldon Day. The facility has been clouded with financial issues since opening in 2020. Earlier this month, attorneys for the mortgagee North Avenue Capital LLC of Ft. Lauderdale, Fla., filed a foreclosure notice with a Clarke County court for nearly $40 million owed on the property. (Gray, 4/18)

The Mercury News: Santa Clara County Asks State To Intervene Over Closure Of Regional Medical Center’s Trauma Center 
Santa Clara County officials, doctors and community members are imploring the state to intervene in HCA Healthcare’s decision to close Regional Medical Center’s trauma center and other life saving programs later this year — a move they say will lead to more deaths and worse outcomes for patients. ... The closure will leave residents in the eastern part of the county without a Comprehensive Stroke Center and San Jose will have fewer trauma centers than any other comparably sized city in the nation, according to county officials. (Hase, 4/17)

The Colorado Sun: A Colorado Psychiatric Hospital Is At Risk Of Closing Within 30 Days
A psychiatric hospital providing mental health and addiction services to people across 23,000 square miles in western Colorado could shut down within weeks if it can’t find the funding it needs to stay open. (Flowers, 4/18)

Bloomberg: PE-Owned Health Care Saw Bankruptcy Surge As Playbook Failed
Private equity-owned businesses accounted for a high number of bankruptcies in the health-care sector last year, and another wave of distress looms, according to a new report from an advocacy group that monitors the sector. PE-backed firms accounted for at least 17, or about a fifth, of the 80 bankruptcies of health-care companies last year, the Private Equity Stakeholder Project said in a report due to be released Wednesday. It called 2023 a “record year” for large health-care bankruptcies. (Coleman-Lochner, 4/17)

Becker's Hospital Review: $90M Indiana Hospital Opens To Patients
Indianapolis-based Eskenazi Health opened its nearly $90 million Eskenazi Health Thomas and Arlene Grande campus in Indianapolis to patients on April 17. Services like financial counseling, chiropractic care, podiatry, imaging, physical therapy and rehabilitation, lifestyle medicine, and pharmacy are offered at the 95,000-square-foot-facility, according to an April 17 news release. (Ashley, 4/17)

The Boston Globe: More Beds Approved At MGH
State regulators on Wednesday approved a request from Massachusetts General Hospital to add nearly 100 new beds to its massive downtown construction project, the hospital said. In a statement, Mass. General said the Massachusetts Public Health Council unanimously approved a “net increase of 94 licensed inpatient beds” at the hospital. The State House News Service previously reported on the approval. (Andersen and Serres, 4/17)

The Baltimore Sun: Report Lists Reasons For Maryland's Long ER Wait Times
Thomas Eagle’s heart rate was hovering around 39 beats per minute when his wife, Anna Palmisano, drove him to the emergency department at Johns Hopkins Suburban Hospital in October 2022. He had COVID-19 and, while he lifted weights and exercised regularly, he was also 75 years old. Palmisano was worried. But after five hours passed and Eagle still hadn’t seen a doctor, they left the Bethesda hospital. They couldn’t wait any longer, they decided. (Roberts, 4/18)

The CT Mirror: CT Hospital, Nursing Home Complaint Backlog Stretches Back Years
The state Department of Public Health is wading through a backlog of 2,400 unaddressed complaints from nursing home residents, their families or others, and another 1,300 complaints related to incidents at hospitals, some which are now five years old, agency data shows. (Carlesso and Altimari, 4/17)

CBS News: House Republicans Urge Passage Of $120 Million In Emergency Aid For Ambulance Services In Minnesota
Emergency medical services providers say they need a lifeline from the state legislature this session to the tune of $120 million to keep answering calls for help, especially in rural parts of Minnesota. But a final deal at the capitol could fall short. DFL leaders in the majority and Gov. Tim Walz in their top-line supplemental spending agreement earmarked $16 million instead. (Cummings, 4/17)

CBS News: Robotic Surgery Program Now Performed At Cook County Health
A robot could soon operate on patients at Stroger Hospital who need surgery. Cook County Health officially launched its Robotic Surgery Program. County board members and health officials gathered at Stroger on Wednesday for the big reveal. They said robotic surgery is often better for patients because it can be less invasive and performed through small incisions. The goal is to ensure that all patients, regardless of age, race, wealth, or status, can access the best possible medical care. (4/17)

Modern Healthcare: What The Epic-Particle Health Dispute Means For Data Sharing
A dispute between electronic health record giant Epic Systems and a startup gives a glimpse at the larger data-sharing challenges healthcare faces. The dispute between Epic and Particle Health, a startup that helps providers and health tech companies aggregate and share data, exposes how a lack of trust has hampered larger interoperability efforts. (Perna, 4/17)

Stat: Data Privacy Needed For Your Brain, Neurorights Foundation Says
Consumer neurotechnology is booming. You can buy a funky-looking headband for $500 on the internet if you want your own personal EEG to track your brain data. But before you click purchase, you might want to check out the device’s privacy policy. (Broderick, 4/17)

The New York Times: Colorado Bill Aims To Protect Consumer Brain Data
Consumers have grown accustomed to the prospect that their personal data, such as email addresses, social contacts, browsing history and genetic ancestry, are being collected and often resold by the apps and the digital services they use. With the advent of consumer neurotechnologies, the data being collected is becoming ever more intimate. One headband serves as a personal meditation coach by monitoring the user’s brain activity. Another purports to help treat anxiety and symptoms of depression. Another reads and interprets brain signals while the user scrolls through dating apps, presumably to provide better matches. (“‘Listen to your heart’ is not enough,” the manufacturer says on its website.) (Moens, 4/17)

The Wall Street Journal: 23andMe CEO Anne Wojcicki Plans To Take Company Private
Anne Wojcicki is seeking to take her DNA-testing company 23andMe private after three years in public markets that saw the once-hot company’s valuation collapse from a high of $6 billion. Her intentions were revealed in a public filing late Wednesday, which stated that she is working with advisers to help craft a potential deal and intends to speak with potential partners and financing sources. The filing said she would oppose any other buyer taking over the company. (Winkler, 4/17)

CBS News: California Can Share Your Baby's DNA Sample Without Permission, But New Bill Could Force State To Publicly Reveal Who They're Giving It To
Genealogy companies like Ancestry.com and 23andMe have to get your permission before they store, use, or share your DNA, under the Genetic Information Privacy Act. However, the California Department of Public Health doesn't have to. In fact, the agency has been storing DNA samples from every baby born in California since the 1980s. Researchers can purchase those samples for state-approved studies and law enforcement can access them with a court order. (Watts, 4/17)

Stat: Microsoft's Role In Setting AI Standards, While Selling Tech, Raises Questions
For a company moving as quickly as possible to build artificial intelligence into everything — including health care — Microsoft spends a lot of time talking about how to regulate it. (Ross and Trang, 4/18)

NPR: Prior Authorizations Make Growth Hormone Shortage Worse 
Dr. Jennifer Miller has been an author of dozens of studies about rare endocrine diseases over the last two decades. Hundreds of patients fly to Gainesville, Fla., from all over the U.S. to see her for treatment. But now, her office is inundated with faxes, emails, texts and phone calls that have little to do with her life's work. ... A shortage of growth hormone — as well as how insurance companies are handling the problem — has consumed nearly every spare minute she has had for the last six months. (Lupkin, 4/17)

USA Today: Drug Shortages In 2024 Reach Record High, From Wegovy To Chemotherapy
Drug shortages have reached a record high in the first three months of 2024. In the first quarter of the year, 323 drugs were running low, surpassing the 2014 high of 320, according to data provided by the American Society of Health-System Pharmacists (ASHP) and the University of Utah Drug Information Service. Since 2001, the groups have tracked shortages using voluntary reports from practitioners and patients that are confirmed by drug makers. (Robledo, 4/17)

CNN: ‘Kids Need To Breathe Just Like Adults Do:’ $35 Price Caps Don’t Apply To Asthma Meds Young Children Need, Doctors Say 
Kerry Pearl remembers the pharmacist holding up the medicine her 4-year-old son needed to help him breathe. “He was literally holding it, looking at me like: ‘I can’t give you this,’ ” she recalls. “My poor kid is at home not sleeping through the night and waking up coughing, and you’re holding the answer and the insurance company kind of holds the keys here.” (Tirrell, 4/17)

Los Angeles Times: Proposed Budget Would Deny Help To Many Autistic Californians 
The state moved in 2021 to phase in higher reimbursement rates for the services provided to the developmentally disabled. This year, however, Gov. Gavin Newsom proposed to delay the final increase to help reduce the state’s budget deficit. Advocates and families say such a delay would only leave essential services further out of families’ reach. (Garcia, 4/17)

San Francisco Chronicle: Asian And White Californians Have The Best Health Care Access: Study
In California, the gap between Asian Americans, the group with the highest health system score, and American Indians, the group with the lowest score, is especially stark — and wider than in other Western states, the analysis found. “The gap in California is particularly large,” said the report’s co-author Arnav Shah, a senior research associate at the Commonwealth Fund, which tracks health industry trends. (Ho, 4/17)

News Service of Florida: Trial Date Set In The Challenge To Florida's Medicaid 'Redetermination' Process 
A federal judge has scheduled a trial May 13 in a lawsuit over people being dropped from Florida’s Medicaid program after the end of a federal public health emergency that was declared in 2020 because of the COVID-19 pandemic. Jacksonville-based U.S. District Judge Marcia Morales Howard issued an order last week scheduling the trial, according to a court docket. (4/18)

The Texas Tribune: Proposed Medicaid Changes Could Shake Up Coverage For 1.8 Million Texans
Texas health officials are poised to drop the state’s three largest nonprofit children’s health plans from multibillion-dollar Medicaid and children’s health insurance contracts — threatening the future of plans run by legacy children’s hospitals in Fort Worth and South Texas and shaking up health care coverage for low-income families throughout the state. (Harper, 4/18)

ABC News: Evidence Of Racial Disparities In Health Care Reported In Every US State: New Report
Racial and ethnic disparities in health care are evident in every state, even those with robust health systems, according to a new analysis from the Commonwealth Fund. In the analysis from the organization, which is aimed at promoting equitable health care, researchers found health system performance is markedly worse for many people of color compared to white people. (4/18)

CBS News: Michigan Health Department Warning Residents Not To Drink Raw Milk. Here's Why
Michigan health experts are warning residents about the risks of consuming raw milk as the highly pathogenic avian influenza continues to affect dairy herds in the state. The virus can spread to humans through the consumption of unpasteurized milk products. "Anyone can get sick from drinking raw milk, but children under age 5, adults over age 65 and those with weakened immune systems are more at risk for getting sick," said Dr. Natasha Bagdasarian, chief medical executive. (Powers, 4/17)

Modern Healthcare: Food-Is-Medicine Clinical Trial Launches In Mississippi Delta
The Mississippi Delta makes a fitting setting for an ambitious research project testing the premise that promoting access to fresh, nutritious food can improve health for people with chronic disease. It was there -- in Mound Bayou -- where the godfather of the food is medicine movement, the late public health advocate Dr. Jack Geiger, co-founded the historic Delta Health Center in 1967, one of the first community health centers to open under President Lyndon Johnson's War on Poverty. (Hartnett, 4/17)

NPR: Guns Are Killing More U.S. Children. Shooting Survivors Can Face Lifelong Challenges
Aaron Hunter was 13 when he woke up in the hospital after being shot in the head while playing with friends. The shooting happened June 22, 2023 in Sarasota, Florida. The bullet entered just above his right ear and lodged halfway into his brain. He doesn't recall the shooting, or even remember being around a gun, he said. "All I remember is I was picking mangoes with a friend, and then I went to another friend's house, and then I remember waking up in the hospital." (Colombini, 4/18)

NPR: New Study Shows More Botched Executions For Black Prisoners
Studies of the death penalty have long shown racial inequality in its application, but a new report has found the disparity extends inside the death chamber itself. In an analysis of the more than 1,400 lethal injection executions conducted in the U.S. since 1982, researchers for the nonprofit Reprieve reported that states made significantly more mistakes during the executions of Black people than they did with prisoners of other races. (Eisner, 4/18)

Military.com: Air Force Identifies Seemingly Higher Rate Of Rare Brain Cancer Among Children At New Mexico Base 
A new Air Force study has found what appears to be a higher rate of a rare brain and spinal cord cancer among children of service members stationed at Cannon Air Force Base in New Mexico. The nearly two-year study examined pediatric brain cancers at the base after concerns about a possible cancer cluster were raised in 2022. The Air Force found three cases of diffuse intrinsic pontine glioma, or DIPG, and the closely related diffuse midline glioma, or DMG -- rare, aggressive and possibly fatal tumors -- among children with parents stationed at Cannon over a 10-year period. (Novelly, 4/17)

CNN: Cancer Rates Are Rising Among Young People. What Steps Should They Take To Reduce Their Risk? 
In a disturbing worldwide trend, new cancer cases among young people have been increasing sharply. Early-onset cancers, defined as cancer cases diagnosed in people under 50, increased globally by a staggering 79%. (Hetter, 4/18)

USA Today: Fluoride Being Removed From Water Systems In More U.S. Communities
Fluoride, the tooth health-boosting mineral that conjures images of dentists' offices for many, has been a standard additive to municipal water sources since the 1940s. ... The Flouride Action Network, an anti-fluoride group, has tracked the ongoing battle in U.S. communities. As of 2023, the network says, more than 240 communities in the world have rejected the use of fluoridated water since 2010, more than 170 of which are in the U.S. (Walrath-Holdridge, 4/17)

Stat: Next-Generation Mosquito Nets Saved 25,000 Lives In Pilot Studies 
The fight against malaria is a test of human intelligence against mosquitoes — and so far, our minuscule winged enemy is winning. But new results shared this week show substantial improvements in one of the most important tools we have to prevent the life-threatening disease: bed nets. (Merelli, 4/17)

Bloomberg: Smoking Bans And ‘Smoke-Free’ Vapes: The Debate Over Tobacco’s Future
As rates of smoking decline worldwide, and some countries even try to ban it, tobacco companies have found other ways to make money by satisfying people’s hankering for nicotine, the addictive stimulant found in tobacco. Sales of “smoke-free” nicotine products are eating into those of cigarettes and other combustibles. Yet health officials are divided as to whether they should condone these products. While less deadly than cigarettes, they can hook users just as easily and may also have harmful effects. (Ekblom, 4/17)